State Bond Commission approves $340.2M for projects

Andrew Larson

The State Bond Commission on Friday approved $340.2 million in funding for projects across the state.

Among other things, the commission approved redirecting about $7 million previously allocated for redevelopment of East Hartford’s Silver Lane and Rentschler Field corridor for construction of new apartments at the 25-acre former Showcase Cinema site. At least 300 units are planned.

In addition, the commission approved:

$6.5 million for abatement and demolition of buildings at Founders Plaza in East Hartford, including the former McCartin School and three adjacent buildings. A developer has proposed a mixed-use project that includes hundreds of apartments, along with new restaurants, entertainment, office space and passive recreation.

$4.85 million for renovations to the state Capitol complex, including skywalk upgrades, hearing room renovations, carpeting, technology upgrades, and other improvements and repairs.

$9 million for the Department of Economic and Community Development’s Small Business Boost Fund - formerly known as the Small Business Express Program – which includes establishing at least one minority business revolving loan fund. 

$30 million to provide supplemental financing for redevelopment and upgrades to the State Pier in New London. The plan is to create a modern, heavy-lift port through a public-private partnership.

$20 million to finance loans for housing projects and programs under the Housing Trust Fund. The funds would go toward the Time To Own first-time homebuyer assistance Program. 

$1.5 million for a mixed-use development on vacant Hartford-owned land on Albany Avenue between Magnolia and Irving streets. The property was previously slated to receive funds to create a neighborhood park, but the money has been redirected.

$4.6 million for small programs and administrative costs under the Economic Development and Manufacturing Assistance Act. 

$750,000 to provide a grant-in-aid to the Eastern Connecticut Chamber of Commerce to move its headquarters to downtown New London.

Construction on $40M New London community center set to begin

John Penney

New London ― City officials expect construction to begin this month on a $40 million community recreation center that is slated to open its doors in 2025.

Work crews in July will descend on seven acres of city-owned land on the Fort Trumbull peninsula and begin erecting the 58,000-square-foot facility, Felix Reyes, director of New London’s Office of Planning and Development, said this past week.

“We’re just waiting for the state (Department of Energy and Environmental Protection) to sign off on the project’s flood plan certificate and work can start,” he said. “That will happen within the next few weeks.”

The project’s initial $30 million price tag jumped by approximately $10 million as more detailed cost figures emerged, Reyes said, with the gap later filled with a combination of state and federal funding.

“When this proposal was brought to the City Council (in 2021) for approval of the original $30 million in bond funding, they were assured that we’d leverage federal and state money to fill any (funding) gaps,” Reyes said.

The center’s opening date, previously pegged for 2024, has been tentatively pushed out to 2025 due to delays in securing a final round of brownfield remediation funding, along with a lengthier-than-anticipated state permitting process, Reyes said.

The city was previously awarded a $1.2 million grant through the state’s Brownfield Remediation program for pre-construction site work. The City Council in June approved the city’s application for $600,000 more in clean-up funding from the state.

“There’s a chance the construction crews will make up that lost construction time,” Reyes said. “We expect the bulk of the building to be up by the end of next year. But months before the center’s done, we’ll start bringing in members of the third-party company that will eventually run the day-to-day operations of the center.”

While the city’s recreation department is expected to run some programming at the site, general oversight and operation of the facility will be the responsibility of a private company the city will hire. The hiring process is expected to begin by the end of this year.

Plans for the center include a community lounge, classroom space for early childhood programming, two-court gymnasium, eight-lane pool, track area and workout and game rooms.

Reyes said area residents currently must travel to the YMCA branches in Mystic and Westerly to avail themselves of similar recreational options. The facility is expected to cost $2 million a year to run with revenue generated by memberships, rental fees and sponsorships.

“The city was never looking for this facility to be a moneymaker,” Reyes said. “It’s about giving all our residents access to recreational options.”

Conversations about exactly what kind of programming will be offered at the center are still in the early stages, but Recreation Department Director Joshua Posey said the new facility brings with it a host of possibilities, including expanded youth swimming and basketball offerings.

“And it’s not just sports I’m thinking about, but things like cooking classes and other new enrichment programming,” he said. “As a resident here for the last decade, this center is a dream come true.”

Bridgeport seeks to take over blighted Warnaco factory

Brian Lockhart

BRIDGEPORT — The city is aiming, either through friendly negotiation or more aggressive means like eminent domain, to get control of a blighted, prominent former South End factory whose owner has failed to move ahead with an eight-year old redevelopment plan.

"It's just a massive property right in the middle of a residential neighborhood, so it's important that be addressed," Thomas Gaudett, deputy chief of staff to Mayor Joe Ganim, said Monday.

The site in question is the three-and-a-half story, 100,000-square-foot former Warnaco clothing factory at 330 Myrtle Ave. New York City-based CT Century Gardens LLC purchased it in 2004 and eight years ago obtained zoning approval to build a nearly 350-unit apartment complex there with ground-floor retail.

But that project never moved forward and late last year the city condemned the dilapidated site to be demolished.

CT Century Gardens, run by Albert Gad, is trying to overturn the condemnation in state Superior Court. A remote status conference before a judge is scheduled for July 20 during which, according to Bridgeport's law department, the defendant has promised to present evidence of a partner prepared to move the redevelopment forward.

Gad could not immediately be reached Monday. In May an assistant of his responded she was "not authorized to comment" on questions forwarded him at that time by Hearst related to the condemnation.

Russell Liskov, the municipal attorney handling that case, in May argued CT Century Gardens has made the claim of a partner to advance the redevelopment in the past "and nothing has panned out." Meanwhile Thomas Gill, Bridgeport's economic development director, in a separate interview in May accused the property owner of "land-banking" — sitting on the site until at some point a potential buyer comes along.

This past spring CT Century Gardens put Warnaco back on the market for $6.5 million, which Gill called a "ridiculous price." The building has been appraised by the city's tax assessor at far less — $1.9 million.

While the condemnation plays out in court, Gill's office late last week submitted a resolution to the City Council seeking authorization to "gain development control" over 330 Myrtle through more than a dozen possible scenarios, from leasing it to a land swap to a "friendly" negotiate purchase to seizing it through eminent domain.

"Eminent domain is always like the last option on the table," Gaudett noted Monday. "We are seeking authority from the council for acquisition in whatever way that may occur."

"We'll just keep going until those buildings are down and the property's being developed," Gaudett concluded.

But city ownership does not necessarily hasten redevelopment, depending on the costs of any environmental cleanup and private sector interest. There are examples around town of publicly owned land that has or is currently being developed and other sites, notably the Majestic and Poli Palace theaters downtown, that have languished.

CT Century Gardens' court appeal of the condemnation cites Warnaco's "potential to be included in the National Register of Historic Places." In May state historic officials indicated to Hearst Connecticut Media that the old manufacturing structure is a potential candidate for preservation but as of that time there were no records of anyone, including the property owner, initiating a formal effort to place the abandoned factory on either the state's or the national historic registers.

City Council member Jorge Cruz, who represents the South End applauded the economic development department's effort to take control of Warnaco.

"Hallelujah. About time," Cruz said. "I want them to take it quickly as possible, knock the place down and bring a developer with a mixed-use (plan) and workforce and affordable housing, with some stores on the bottom. That building has been an eyesore for so many years."

City Council member Tyler Mack, who also represents the South End, said it seems like the resolution forwarded to the council is "a backup plan" should the city not prevail in court over the condemnation appeal. Liskov on Monday said he had not been made aware of the resolution and it is a separate matter from the condemnation.

"We need to weigh all options because that area and particular building has been an eyesore and hasn't done much for the South End in a long time," Mack said.

But, he cautioned, any plans must also factor in the new high school, Bassick, being built nearby and the impact any additional traffic from redeveloping 330 Myrtle Ave. will have on the students and faculty there.

Fairfield gets $3M grant to develop vacant lot next to Fairfield Metro station

Jarrod Wardwell

FAIRFIELD — The town recently received a $3 million state grant to furnish a multi-use development with residential and retail space at a vacant lot on Black Rock Turnpike.

The grant will renovate a 4.9-acre lot at 81 Black Rock Turnpike, which has sat empty for about a decade next to the Fairfield Metro Station, First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick said in a recent town update. The development will feature affordable housing, retail, co-working space and public amenities. 

Post Road Residential, the real estate company that developed The Anchorage in downtown Fairfield, requested a non-binding preview of its planned five-story development at the Black Rock Turnpike lot from the Town Plan and Zoning Commission in November. TPZ Chair Thomas Noonan had expressed interest in working with the Post Road Residential developers at the time.

TPZ commissioners amended the developers' proposal at a meeting last month, including adding the co-working space and bicycle parking and increasing the amount of affordable housing from 10 to 12 percent of the total residential units.

The state grant is part of a $23.8 million cash infusion to 15 towns and cities that Gov. Ned Lamont approved late June for projects set to remediate a total of 480 acres of land.

The Fairfield development will feature 240 residential units, 20 percent of which will be considered affordable at 80 percent of the area median income, according to a release from Lamont's office.

"It makes no sense to have old, polluted, blighted properties sitting vacant for decades when we could be using this land to grow new businesses and create new housing," Lamont said in the release. "This state program enables us to partner with municipalities and developers to bring these lifeless properties back from the dead."

The release states the grants — which span 22 properties and come from the state's Brownfield Remediation and Development Program — should generate about $862 million in private funding, 915 jobs and 811 residential units, 223 of which will be affordable housing.

Plans to develop the space surrounding the Fairfield Metro Station have been in the works for nearly two decades leading up to last year, when town leaders and developers broke ground in September on a project to build a hotel, commercial space and hundreds of apartments off Ash Creek Boulevard. The Elicit Brewing Company is also set to open a second location near the metro station at 111 Black Rock Turnpike.

"The combined impact of these three projects will result in a mixed-use development, creating a vibrant and walkable community," Kupchick said in her email.

Mark Barnhart, the director of Fairfield's Office of Community and Economic Development, said the entire development will cost about $100 million, including $4 million for cleanup alone. Barnhart said the grant is "largely focused" on cleaning up environmental contamination on the site where Bullard Machine Tool Company operated a casting facility decades ago. He said the contamination comes as the byproduct of residual sand that workers would dump into wet areas from the casts they would use to make machine tools.

He said about 10,000 employees worked at the Fairfield manufacturing plant around the mid-20th century until the company shut down the location in the mid-1980s.

Barnhart said the sand dumping, though common practice at the time, amounts to "regulated solid waste" in Connecticut and must be cleaned under state guidelines for Post Road Residential to build a complex there. Barnhart said the contamination is not hazardous or a "human health" concern.

"Is there some risk that they might encounter something unforeseen?" he said, "Yeah, that's the nature of the development business. There's always some risk, but I think they've done a decent job in trying to understand the site and mitigate the risk associated with development."

He said several tenants occupied the former Bullard building until its demolition in 2014, and since then, the environmental issue has "impeded" other developments on the lot because of cleanup costs and potential risk factors.

He added the town has had to clean up other manufacturing contaminants in the area in the past, including "polychlorinated biphenyl," a carcinogenic industrial chemical that the United States banned in 1979, at the Metro station. PCB cleanup at the Fairfield Metro site cost about $2 million during the construction of the train station in 2011.

Barnhart said he hopes the construction and cleanup can start by 2024, but the timeline is contingent on the permitting process.

Norwalk River Valley Trail earns $4.5M federal RAISE grant for 30-mile trail from Norwalk to Danbury

Karen Tensa

The Norwalk River Valley Trail, which when completed will be longest trail in Fairfield County, has received a big boost with $4.528 million in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation. 

The funds will be used for continued planning for the trail, which will cover over 30 miles, connecting Calf Pasture Beach in Norwalk to Rogers Park in Danbury, while passing through Wilton, Ridgefield, and Redding along the way, according to Andrea Gartner, executive director of the Friends of the Norwalk River Valley Trail. 

"The goal of the grant is to create 'shovel ready' projects that will aid in getting capital/construction grant awards to fund building more," Gartner said. The 10-foot-wide, handicapped accessible, multiuse trail can be used by walkers, runners and bicyclists. Nearly 12 miles of the trail have been completed so far, in Norwalk, Wilton and Redding, thanks to state and donor funds, she said.  

"We are so grateful to the U.S. Department of Transportation for recognizing the transformative nature of this project and providing 80 percent of the funding for the final design," Gartner said. "The possibilities of a fully completed Norwalk River Valley Trail are awesomely inspiring: bike to Danbury and train back to Norwalk; run a full marathon and have dinner in Ridgefield; explore the beauty of the Connecticut hills, the river and placid points all along the NRVT; leave your car behind and commute to work. With this award, we are on our way to realizing that vision."

The Friends of the Norwalk River Valley Trail maintains the trail and 10 feet of land on each side of it, with Gartner calling it “a 30-foot ribbon, if you will,” through the region. 

“I’m overjoyed that I was able to support WestCOG and the Friends of the Norwalk River Valley Trail in securing $4.5 million in federal funding so that they can complete work on what will be the longest bicycle and pedestrian trail in Fairfield County,” U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., said Friday in a statement announcing the grant.

“More than 30 miles running through the heart of Southwest Connecticut, this trail provides a path for families to walk along the Norwalk River, hikers the chance to climb Connecticut hills, and commuters a way to bike to work safely and conveniently. This project will not only connect our cities and towns, but also encourage the good physical and mental health benefits that come with spending time in nature,” Himes said. 

The grant, from the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity, or RAISE, program, will help improve quality of life and provide greater access to bike and pedestrian infrastructure in Southwest Connecticut, while promoting tourism and spurring economic development in the region, Himes said.

According to Gartner, since 2012, the NRVT, in partnership with the five municipalities along the trail, has applied for multiple grants to build more of the trail. In October 2022, the NRVT received the Connecticut Department of Transportation's funding letters for the Ridgefield Ramble and the continuation of the Wilton Loop North projects. When the current Ridgefield and Wilton lengths are finished, the total length completed of the NRVT will reach the halfway mark at 15 miles.

The demand for outdoor recreation has increased dramatically since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, according to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Annual visits to locations in the Connecticut State Parks and Forests system reached 17 million in 2022 — a 75 percent increase from visitation levels of between 9 million and 10 million in 2019.